That upgrade was planned, in part, to bring LES capabilities to the SGP to support future modeling strategies. This symbiotic relationship is part of ARM’s decadal vision to increase the Facility’s relevance to scientific users—especially earth system modelers—by providing them with the measurements and value-added products that will best advance their research.

Phase 2 will involve formally recommending and adopting the scope and configuration of LASSO for shallow convection, implementing LASSO software within ARM’s infrastructure, and beginning the ongoing process of building a library of LES simulations of shallow convection. The expansion of cases with the operational framework will begin this fall.

In the nearer term, the team is working on finalizing the Alpha 2 release, which will be available via the ARM Data Archive this summer. Alpha 2 will have simulations from 13 cases during 2016, a much larger sample than the five 2015 cases released with Alpha 1. Unlike Alpha 1, Alpha 2 will include a forcing that includes ARM wind, temperature, and moisture profiles within the multiscale data assimilation process. The LASSO team has also worked to expand the data bundles, which are products that match measurements and models, to include additional cloud observations to compare with the LES output.

Images from the next LASSO release are shared.

Long term, the team aims to expand coverage to other sites and other atmospheric phenomena. For LASSO users, that’s an exciting prospect. “Stay tuned,” says Gustafson. “We’re just getting started.”

ARM’s LASSO project is a major initiative to provide the data required to compare models to measurements, making it easier to work between the two areas. It’s one of a few instances in which a major observational facility has supported its own large, systematic modeling activity. LASSO aims to accelerate dialogue between modeling needs and observational capabilities and limitations, thereby improving understanding of the Earth system.